A blog devoted to astronomy / astrophysics and space missions

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft is approaching the dwarf planet Ceres. On February 12, 2015, when it was at a distance of about 83,000 kilometers (about 52,000 miles), it took some pictures that show us Ceres with a quality never seen before, allowing us to see its craters. The photos taken previously had puzzled scientists for the presence of some white spots but the new images don’t solve the mystery.

Last Saturday, ESA’s Rosetta space probe made a flyby just 6 kilometers (about 4 miles) away from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is becoming more and more active because the approach to the Sun is sublimating its water ice. This maneuver is an important moment in the Rosetta mission for the possible analyzes but also because it starts a new phase in which the probe will move away from the comet for its passage closest to the Sun in August 2015.

The Rosetta space probe’s flyby is the culmination of a series of maneuvers that started on February 4, 2015 when it abandoned the orbit in which he was flying, about 26 kilometers from the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Initially, Rosetta moved away from the comet until it was 142 kilometers (about 88 miles) away then it moved close again and to reach the minimum distance on February 14.

Since July 2014, NASA’s space probe Cassini has been accomplishing its mission exploring Saturn and its moons, including Titan. Its SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) instrument allowed to map almost half of the surface of this satellite, allowing to know its geological features like never before. Now these surveys can offer even more details thanks to a new technique that improves their quality.

The images created thanks to the Cassini space probe’s SAR are “grainy”, like photographs of limited quality. Scientists must strive to interpret the smaller geological features or to identify changes in images of the same area taken at different times. The new technique called despeckling by its developers is improving the situation.

The DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory) satellite was launched a few hours ago on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral. The spacecraft successfully separated from the rocket’s last stage after about half an hour and inserted in the trajectory that will bring it to its destination. It also deployed its solar panels and sent the first signals, confirming that it’s working properly.

DSCOVR will be placed in an area called L1, about a half million kilometers (about 930,000 miles) from Earth, where the planet and the Sun’s gravity are balanced. There it will begin its mission of observation of the solar wind after the test period, that will last about 40 days.

Today the suborbital test of IXV (Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle) was conducted. It’s an ESA experimental spacecraft that is designed to verify the some rentry technologies. IXV was launched on a Vega rocket in the launch indicated as VV04 from the Kourou space center in French Guyana.

The final purpose for ESA is to build a spacecraft capable of returning to Earth autonomously. Over the years, ESA has built various types of spacecraft, including cargo ships, but none are able to return to Earth. For this reason, in 2002 it was decided to develop the technologies needed in order to build a spacecraft capable of bringing cargo from the International Space Station or from other missions in orbit.